Narrating the doctoral journey on Chinese social media: chronotopes and scales in user interaction on Xiaohongshu
-
Leslie Huishan Li
Abstract
In this study, I apply the notions of chronotope and scale in social semiotic multimodal discourse analysis to investigate user interaction on a specific social media platform in China: Xiaohongshu. More specifically, I analyze semiotic resource deployment, chronotope mixing, and scaling strategies in home pages, posts, and discussions created by users who label themselves and are labeled by the platform as doctoral students. This article showcases how interpersonal connections of distance and intimacy are established among bloggers, followers, and discussants, as well as how these individuals represent and negotiate characteristics and statuses concerning the doctoral community. Chronotopes, as time-space-identity configurations, are invoked and deployed as communication resources for interactants to self-present and position themselves in contrast to or aligned with certain memberships and communities. It is within and through accumulated community discourse as such that social meanings, values, and identity performance are constantly (re)constructed. This article contributes both to the application of chronotopes and scales in multimodal discourse analysis and to the multimodal analysis of social media communication with a focus on nuanced semiotic interactions in deference to the doctoral community.
摘要
本研究运用尺度 (scale) 与时空体 (chronotope) 概念, 通过社会符号学框架下的多模态话语分析方法, 考察中国社交媒体平台“小红书”上的用户互动。具体而言, 本研究分析自我标识及被平台标识为“博士生”的用户群体在其主页、发帖及讨论中如何部署符号资源、混合时空体及运用尺度策略。研究揭示博主、关注者与评论者之间如何构建趋近或疏离的关系, 以及这些个体如何呈现和协商与博士群体相关的特征与身份地位。作为时间-空间-身份的构型, 时空体被引用并作为交际资源, 使互动者得以进行自我呈现, 并对于特定群体和社群进行趋近或疏离的自我定位。正是在这种群体话语之中通过这种积累,社会意义、价值观及身份表演得以不断(再)建构。本研究一方面深化了时空体与尺度在多模态话语分析中的应用, 另一方面推进了社交媒体交际的多模态分析, 尤其关注博士群体中细微的符号互动。
References
Bakhtin, Mikhail Mikhailovich. 1981. The dialogic imagination: Four essays. Edited by Michael Holquist; translated by Caryl Emerson. Austin: University of Texas PressSuche in Google Scholar
Blommaert, Jan. 2015. Chronotopes, scales, and complexity in the study of language in society. Annual Review of Anthropology 44(1). 105–116. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-anthro-102214-014035.Suche in Google Scholar
Blommaert, Jan & Anna De Fina. 2017. Chronotopic identities: On the spacetime organization of who we are. In Anna De Fina, Ikizoglu Didem & Jeremy Wegner (eds.), Diversity and superdiversity: Sociocultural linguistic perspectives, 1–15. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press.Suche in Google Scholar
Chen, Bonnie H. Y., Yuchen Zhou & Liu Yang. 2024. The role of involution on Chinese youth pursuit of postgraduate education abroad: Examine through the lens of normative social behaviour. Asia Pacific Journal of Education 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1080/02188791.2024.2408394.Suche in Google Scholar
Craig, David, Jian Lin & Stuart Cunningham. 2021. Wanghong as social media entertainment in China. Cham: Springer.10.1007/978-3-030-65376-7Suche in Google Scholar
Darvin, Ron. 2022. Design, resistance and the performance of identity on TikTok. Discourse, Context & Media 46. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dcm.2022.100591.Suche in Google Scholar
Ellison, Nicole B., Cassidy Pyle & Jessica Vitak. 2022. Scholarship on well-being and social media: A sociotechnical perspective. Current Opinion in Psychology 46. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.copsyc.2022.101340.Suche in Google Scholar
Fitzgerald, Richard, Todd Sandel & Xiaoping Wu. 2022. Chinese social media: Technology, culture and creativity. Discourse, Context & Media 48. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dcm.2022.100610.Suche in Google Scholar
Gal, Susan. 2019. Scale-making: Comparison and perspective as ideological projects. In E. Summerson Carr & Michael Lempert (eds.), Scale, 91–111. Oakland: University of California Press.10.1515/9780520965430-007Suche in Google Scholar
Gao, Shuang. 2022. The online activism of mock translanguaging: Language style, celebrity persona, and social class in China. Discourse, Context & Media 47. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dcm.2022.100608.Suche in Google Scholar
Gaston, Sarah. 2013. The methods, politics, and ethics of representation in online ethnography. In Norman K. Denzin & Yvonna S. Lincoln (eds.), Collecting and interpreting qualitative materials (Sage handbook of qualitative research 3), 4th edn., 245–276. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.Suche in Google Scholar
GMA. 2024. Xiaohongshu user base overview 2024. Fashion China Agency. https://fashionchinaagency.com/xiaohongshu-user-base-overview-2022/ (accessed 2 February 2024).Suche in Google Scholar
Guo, Jia 2022. The postfeminist entrepreneurial self and the platformisation of labour: A case study of yesheng female lifestyle bloggers on Xiaohongshu. Global Media and China 7(3). 303–318. https://doi.org/10.1177/20594364221095896.Suche in Google Scholar
Heidari, Elham, Ghasem Salimi & Mahboobe Mehrvarz. 2023. The influence of online social networks and online social capital on constructing a new graduate students’ professional identity. Interactive Learning Environments 31(1). 214–231. https://doi.org/10.1080/10494820.2020.1769682.Suche in Google Scholar
Horta, Hugo & Li Tang. 2023. Male and female academics’ gendered perceptions of academic work and career progression in China. Higher Education Quarterly 77(3). 515–536. https://doi.org/10.1111/hequ.12419.Suche in Google Scholar
Hu, Jing. 2021. The secrets of “tree hole”: Analysis of online interpersonal interaction based on @tree hole account in Weibo. In C. Kahl & N. Fatima (eds.), Proceedings of the 2021 International Conference on Public Relations and Social Sciences. The Netherlands: Atlantis Press.10.2991/assehr.k.211020.319Suche in Google Scholar
Hu, Yingwei. 2023. The influence of platform e-commerce UGC mode on the consumption willingness of ‘Generation Z’: Taking Xiaohongshu as an example. Journal of Innovation and Development 4(1). 12–18. https://doi.org/10.54097/jid.v4i1.10675.Suche in Google Scholar
Jewitt, Carey, Jeff Bezemer & Kay O’Halloran. 2016. Introducing multimodality. London: Routledge.10.4324/9781315638027Suche in Google Scholar
Ju, Bei, Todd Sandel & Richard Fitzgerald. 2019. Understanding Chinese internet and social media: The innovative and creative affordances of technology, language and culture. Cahiers du Centre de linguistique et des sciences du langage 59. 161–177. https://doi.org/10.26034/la.cdclsl.2019.65.Suche in Google Scholar
Kress, Gunther & Theo Van Leeuwen. 2021. Reading images: The grammar of visual design, 3rd edn. London: Routledge.10.4324/9781003099857Suche in Google Scholar
Kumpulainen, Kristiina & Antti Rajala. 2017. Negotiating time-space contexts in students’ technology-mediated interaction during a collaborative learning activity. International Journal of Educational Research 84. 90–99. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijer.2016.05.002.Suche in Google Scholar
Liu, Dan, Qiuxi Liu & W. John Morgan. 2024. Why do Chinese overseas doctoral graduates return to China? The push–pull factors and the influence of gender and gender norms. Population, Space and Place 30(7). https://doi.org/10.1002/psp.2789.Suche in Google Scholar
McLaughlin, Christopher James & Elizabeth Sillence. 2023. Buffering against academic loneliness: The benefits of social media-based peer support during postgraduate study. Active Learning in Higher Education 24(1). 63–76. https://doi.org/10.1177/1469787418799185.Suche in Google Scholar
Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China. 2013. Guanyu shenhua yanjiusheng jiaoyu gaige de yijian [Guidelines on deepening graduate education reform]. http://www.moe.gov.cn/srcsite/A22/s7065/201304/t20130419_154118.html (accessed 14 August 2024).Suche in Google Scholar
Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China. 2022. 2021 Nian quanguo jiaoyu shiye fazhan tongji gongbao [the 2021 statistical bulletin on national education development]. http://www.moe.gov.cn/jyb_sjzl/sjzl_fztjgb/202209/t20220914_660850.html (accessed 15 June 2024).Suche in Google Scholar
NERIS Analytics. 2024. Defender: ISFJ personality. 16 personalities website. https://www.16personalities.com/isfj-personality (accessed August 2024).Suche in Google Scholar
Poulsen, Søren Vigild & Gunhild Kvåle. 2018. Studying social media as semiotic technology: A social semiotic multimodal framework. Social Semiotics 28(5). 700–717. https://doi.org/10.1080/10350330.2018.1505689.Suche in Google Scholar
Qian, Luyi. 2024. The influence of Xiaohongshu female bloggers on female values. SHS Web of Conferences 185. https://doi.org/10.1051/shsconf/202418503009.Suche in Google Scholar
Qing, Shisong. 2020. Gender role attitudes and male-female income differences in China. Journal of Chinese Sociology 7(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s40711-020-00123-w.Suche in Google Scholar
Ren, Wei & Yaping Guo. 2020. Self-praise on Chinese social networking sites. Journal of Pragmatics 169. 179–189. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2020.09.009.Suche in Google Scholar
Sandel, Todd L. & Dorji Wangchuk. 2020. “Thank you for your blessing”: Constructed mobile chronotopes in a Buddhist online community in Bhutan. Language & Communication 75. 36–50. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.langcom.2020.08.001.Suche in Google Scholar
Seargeant, Philip & Caroline Tagg (eds.). 2014. The language of social media. London: Palgrave Macmillan.10.1057/9781137029317Suche in Google Scholar
Sheldon, Julie & Victoria Sheppard (eds.). 2022. Online communities for doctoral researchers and their supervisors: Building engagement with social media. London: Routledge.10.4324/9780429274749Suche in Google Scholar
Sun, Yijia & Tuan Phong Ly. 2023. The influence of word-of-web on customers’ purchasing process: The case of Xiaohongshu. Journal of China Tourism Research 19(2). 221–244. https://doi.org/10.1080/19388160.2022.2057378.Suche in Google Scholar
Tang, Li & Hugo Horta. 2021. Women academics in Chinese universities: A historical perspective. Higher Education 82(5). 865–895. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-020-00669-1.Suche in Google Scholar
Teng, Man & Brian Hok-Shing Chan. 2022. Collective colouring in danmu comments on Bilibili. Discourse, Context & Media 45. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dcm.2021.100577.Suche in Google Scholar
Tian, Wenru, Yiyang Xiao & Longkun Xu. 2021. What XiaoHongShu users care about: An analysis of online review comments. In C. Kahl & N. Fatima (eds.), Proceedings of the 2021 International Conference on Public Relations and Social Sciences. The Netherlands: Atlantis Press.10.2991/assehr.k.211020.186Suche in Google Scholar
Wu, Xiaoping & Richard Fitzgerald. 2021. “Hidden in plain sight”: Expressing political criticism on Chinese social media. Discourse Studies 23(3). 365–385. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461445620916365.Suche in Google Scholar
Xiaohongshu. 2024. Xiaohongshu: Inspire lives. Xiaohongshu official home page. https://www.xiaohongshu.com/en (accessed June 2024).Suche in Google Scholar
Xu, Linlin. 2024. Chinese international doctoral students’ perceptions of publishing: A time–space perspective. Teaching in Higher Education 29(6). 1482–1499. https://doi.org/10.1080/13562517.2022.2067473.Suche in Google Scholar
Zhai, Keyu & Xing Gao. 2021. Who achieves superior rates of upward social mobility and better labor market outcomes in China: International student returnees or postgraduates who study domestically? Asia Pacific Education Review 22(2). 223–238. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12564-021-09669-x.Suche in Google Scholar
Zhang, Leticia-Tian & Daniel Cassany. 2020. Making sense of danmu: Coherence in massive anonymous chats on bilibili.com. Discourse Studies 22(4). 483–502. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461445620940051.Suche in Google Scholar
Zhang, Yi & Wei Ren. 2020. “This is so skrrrrr”: Creative translanguaging by Chinese micro-blogging users. International Journal of Multilingualism 19(3). 289–304. https://doi.org/10.1080/14790718.2020.1753746.Suche in Google Scholar
Zhao, Yandong & Yanbi Hong. 2018. An analysis of the factors influencing the academic occupation orientation of PhD graduates. Chinese Education and Society 51(3). 232–243. https://doi.org/10.1080/10611932.2018.1454154.Suche in Google Scholar
Zhu, Jiabin, Yingqian Zhang & Chaoqun Zheng. 2024. Graduate education in China. In Liu Niancai, Feng Zhuolin & Wang Qi (eds.), Education in China and the world, 231–279. Singapore: Springer Nature Singapore.Suche in Google Scholar
© 2025 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
